After 71 years, a Price soldier's medals come home

Ruth Cyfers of Price beams for photographs after receiving belated medals on behalf of her deceased brother, Army Pvt. Bernard Spears, from Sen. Orrin Hatch. The senator presented the Purple Heart and Bronze Star to her in a ceremony in Salt Lake Wednesday. Spears was killed in action in Word War II. He was awarded the medals for his heroic actions in Tunisia on April 13, 1943.

Cyfers brought the missing medals to the Senator's attention after she recently visited the website of the World War II Memorial and noticed by Pvt. Spears name that he had not only earned a Purple Heart, but a Bronze Star. The family was not aware of the Bronze Star. After research with the Army, Hatch found that Spears had won the Combat Infantry Badge, which was retroactively changed by Congress to a Bronze Star in 1947. "I am thrilled I am able to give the rightful recognition to the family of a wonderful veteran who literally gave his life in the cause of freedom," the senator stated. He also presented five medals to Lorraine Fisher of Bountiful that were won by her father, Staff Sgt. Marvin Miller, during World War II but had been lost.